TO CHARLES THOMSON.1
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]
BOSTON May 30 1774
MY DEAR SIR,
I receivd your very obliging Letter by the hands of Mr Revere. I thank you for the warm Affection you therein express for this Town, your Zeal for the Common Cause of America, and your prudent and salutary Advice. I hope in God that this People will sustain themselves under their pressing Difficulties with Firmness. It is hard to restrain the Resentment of some within the proper Bounds, and to keep others who are more irresolute from sinking. While we are resolved not tamely to comply with the humiliating terms of the barbarous Edict, I hope, by refraining from every Act of Violence we shall avoid the Snare that is laid for us by the posting of Regiments so near us. We shall endeavor by Circumspection to frustrate the diabolical Designs of our Enemies.
Our Committee of Correspondence will write an Answer to the Letter they receivd from yours by this opportunity. In order that you may have an Understanding of our Appointment I think it necessary to inform you, that we are a Committee, not of the Trade, but of the whole Town; chosen to be as it were outguards to watch the Designs of our Enemies. We were appointed near two years ago, and have a Correspondence with almost every Town in the Colony. By this Means we have been able to circulate the most early Intelligence of Importance to our Friends in the Country, & to establish an Union which is formidable to our Adversaries.
But it is the Trade that we must at present depend upon for that SPEEDY Reliefe which the Necessity of this Town requires. The Trade will forever be divided when a Sacrifice of their Interest is called for. By far the greater part of the Merchants of this place are & ever have been steadfast in the Cause of their Country; but a small Number may defeat the good Intentions of the rest, and there are some Men among them, perhaps more weak than wicked, who think it a kind of Reputation to them to appear zealous in Vindication of the Measures of Tyranny, and these it is said are tempted by the Commissioners of the Customs, with Indulgencies in their Trade. Nevertheless it is of the greatest Importance that some thing should be done for the immediate Support of this Town. A Congress is of absolute Necessity in my Opinion, but from the length of time it will take to bring it to pass, I fear it cannot answer for the present Emergency. The Act of Parliament shuts up our Port. Is it not necessary to push for a Suspension of Trade with Great Britain as far as it will go, and let the yeomanry (whose Virtue must finally save this Country) resolve to desert those altogether who will not come into the Measure. This will certainly alarm the Manufacturers in Britain, who felt more than our Enemies would allow, the last Nonimportation Agreement. The virtuous forbearance of the Friends of Liberty may be powerful enough to command Success. Our Enemies are already holding up to the Tradesmen the grim Picture of Misery and Want, to induce them to yield to Tyranny. I hope they will not prevail upon them but this is to be feard, unless their Brethren in the other Colonies will agree upon Measures of SPEEDY Support and Reliefe.
It gives me the greatest pleasure to find our worthy Friend the Farmer2 at the head of a respectable Committee. Pray let him know that I am fully of his Sentiments. Violence & Submission would at this time be equally fatal.
I write in the utmost haste.
Your affectionate Friend, __________
You will see in some of our Papers of this day an infamous Address to Hutchinson signd by a Number who call themselves Merchants Traders & others. In this List of Subscribers are containd the Names of his party taken after abundance of Pains from every Class of Men down to the lowest. I verily believe I could point out half a Score Gentlemen in Town able to purchase the whole of them. For their understanding I refer you to the Address itself. There is also another Paper of this Kind subscribed by those who call themselves Lawyers. It was refused with Indignation by some who for Learning & Virtue are acknowledgd to be the greatest Ornaments of that Profession. The Subscribers are taken from all parts of the Province. A few of them are allowed to be of Ability—others of none—others have lately purchasd their Books and are now about to read. This List you will observe is headed by one of our Judges of the Admiraltry, & seconded by another—there is also the Solicitor General (a Wedderburne in Principle but not equal to him in Ability) the Advocate General &c &c. The whole Design of these Addresses is to prop a sinking Character in England.
________________________________________________________________ 1Later secretary of the Continental Congress. 2John Dickinson. Cf., page 104.